All posts in category oh really

A Belgian Malinois named Thor lived at Long Beach Animal Care Services for 6 weeks this summer. A family who had another Mal applied to adopt him on July 13 but was turned away when the staff decided on July 14 that Thor had suddenly become too big a threat to society to be released to anyone but rescue. So a rescue placed a hold on Thor but Long Beach ACS killed him anyway, an apparent violation of California’s Hayden Act. Then Long Beach ACS began shoveling the excuses.

A [July 14] report from ACS’s Behavior and Rehoming Coordinator Jill Prout said the dog was exhibiting signs of “kennel deterioration,” was “spinning in kennel & jumping off kennel wall,” attempted to bite his leash and his handler’s arm, was “lunging at members of the public” and appeared to “have become highly stressed and anxious,” a behavior “not seen upon intake.”

OK for starters, any dog living in a shelter for 6 weeks who wasn’t spinning, jumping, and pulling the dog walker’s arm off trying to visit people had probably emotionally shut down and given up on life. Be thankful that didn’t happen to Thor. Secondly, any Mal in a shelter for 6 weeks who hadn’t eaten his way through the chain link, opened all the cages and put together a competition canine wrestling team sounds like a highly extremely super adoptable pet, especially for a family that knows the breed. Thirdly, a dog who “attempts” to interact with people and things orally may have an oral fixation – common in retriever breeds as well as many high drive dogs (which is why in training they are often rewarded with oral-oriented play such as tug toys). None of the behavior described in this isolated incident, coming on the heels of 6 weeks of normal behavior, should have disqualified Thor from being adopted, let alone gotten him killed. So I’m going with NO on that line of reasoning.

Then there’s this response to the shelter operations supervisor who asked the manager why Thor, whom she describes as one of her favorite dogs, was killed even though a rescue placed a hold on him:

And here are two entries in Thor’s records regarding his killing: one from the tech who administered the pre-kill sedative and the other from the tech who did the killing. The entries are timestamped 1:02pm and 1:05pm respectively:

So the time excuse is also a NO. But there’s an excuse for that excuse:

“Staff began euthanizing the animals around 10 a.m. and they were finished by noon. They do that, then they come back later and enter them in the log.”

OK so Long Beach routinely kills animals without checking the computer records for those animals. Gee, that sounds reckless, at best.

But to put the whole time issue in perspective, Thor’s behavior that landed him on the kill list happened Thursday morning, July 14th and was entered into his records at 10:29am:

So Long Beach apparently changed him to rescue-only the morning of July 14th, after killing had already started for the day, and then rushed him to the kill room as fast as they could. What kind of chance does that give an animal to be rescued? It’s just another gigantic NO.

The pre-kill sedative that was used on Thor, and is presumably used on other animals at the Long Beach shelter, is not recommended for use as a pre-kill sedative in the HSUS killing manual. Specifically on pages 35 – 36, HSUS says “ace should never be used alone” as a sedative “because it’s a tranquilizer, not an anesthetic” and carries a number of risks with it as well. HSUS further states that when given orally, it takes 30 – 40 minutes to take full effect. Thor was given ace just 3 minutes prior to being killed according to the records. Except the times are all wrong, I guess. So does anyone know if Thor and all the other animals being killed at Long Beach are given ace 40 minutes prior to being killed? Because apparently we can’t rely on the shelter’s records to provide that information. And why are they using ace anyway?

But enough with the questions because the manager wants everyone to know that Thor’s would-be family adopted a different dog. And Long Beach removed one dog from the kill list on July 14 and put Thor in his place. So it’s all good. Because dogs are widgets and entirely interchangeable. Put one in this column, one in that column, mark them as rescue-only while holding them down on the kill table, give them some sort of drug, whatever time you like, who cares?

Stayin’ Alive Long Beach has filed a complaint over Thor’s killing with the city attorney.

The SPCA for Monterey County in CA has a bunch of lies about no kill on its website in a feeble attempt to make killing more palatable to donors. We don’t turn animals away, killing is a kindness, blah blah bullshit.

The private non-profit could turn animals away, since it doesn’t appear to hold any animal control contracts, but instead chooses to accept every animal that comes through its front doors. Tragically, the SPCA then sends roughly half of them out the back door, their bodies piled in barrels which get stored in a walk-in freezer.

The Monterey County Weekly published a lengthy piece on the SPCA for Monterey County and specifically, the killing that goes on in a room they refused to allow the paper to see. The director, who gets paid close to $300 grand a year, is retiring after 16 years on the job:

“We save many of these animals but as of yet, we cannot save all of them,” outgoing SPCA Executive Director Gary Tiscornia says. “These are the decisions we have to make.”

Not have to – choose to. They choose to take in all these animals then choose to kill more than 2700 of them a year.

Euthanasia rates increased along with the intake of animals into the shelter. […] Every year, numbers steadily increased, and Tiscornia alludes to the policies of Monterey County’s and Salinas’ animal shelters as possible culprits, in addition to an influx of feral cats, which are almost always euthanized at the SPCA due to behavioral issues.
[…]
Tiscornia says it’s important to look at external factors influencing his organization’s numbers, not just the policies within his nonprofit. Here he is referring to a sterilization program run out of the Salinas animal services shelter that releases feral cats back into the wild after being spayed and neutered.

This, he says, has influenced the nonprofit’s high euthanasia record, as it received more feral cats.

So Salinas is doing its job by neutering and returning feral cats to their home in the community. I get that part. Is Tiscornia saying that his organization then takes those cats, which it has zero obligation to accept, and kills them, because yay killing I guess, so don’t blame us for our kill rate because it’s Salinas’s fault actually? Three. Hundred. Thousand. Dollars.

And while we’re dazzling the public with the Chewbacca Defense, have you seen our newly remodeled, super fancy adoption center with filtered air, classical music and kitty condos?

But beautifying the adoption center has not been enough. In 2014, nearly 1,000 more animals were put down than adopted. Last year, the number of animals euthanized was just 20 fewer than those who found a loving home.

Tiscornia […] explains those ratios this way: “At the end of the day, the pet’s adoptability determines its fate,” he says.
[…]
“We have only euthanized sick and behaviorally damaged pets,” he says.

The Weekly obtained kill records from the SPCA which are not available on the SPCA website. The paper cites respiratory issues and “hissing when touched” as two of the reasons animals are killed at the facility.

“One of the key reasons for euthanasia is behavior,” Tiscornia says. “Issues like jumping on people, obnoxious behavior.”

Well crappity doo, he just killed every single one of my dogs.

When discussing puppies with mange, Tiscornia again attempts to justify killing:

“If this were a 9-year-old dog with the possibility of recurring mange, the public would not adopt him,” Tiscornia says. “These are the decisions we need to make.”

Not need to – choose to. And who the monkey fighting snake is this guy to decide that no one could possibly love a 9 year old dog who might get mange at some unknown future time? Better to kill the dog than to take the chance someone might want him and be willing to give him medicine if he ever needs it, I guess. Three. Hundred. Thousand. Dollars.

Still, the nonprofit continues to pride itself in its open-door policy: taking all animals in need – wild, neglected or sick as they may be – into their care.

“We never turn down an animal,” Dawn Fenton, the SPCA’s education and outreach manager, says. “We make it work.”

And by “we make it work,” she apparently means we totally do not make it work at all because we are killing half the animals. Has it occurred to anyone at the SPCA that if the best they can offer is a spot in the freezer barrel, they not only should but in fact have a moral obligation to turn away animals?

“If we closed, could you imagine what would happen?” SPCA spokesperson Beth Brookhouser says.

Dance party at my house? Feral cats sipping champagne out of glass slippers? A parade?

That asinine plastic hand is waving more shelter dogs into the kill room – this time at the Franklin Co Dog Shelter in Ohio. Just how many dogs are being killed because they don’t wag their tails and exclaim, “Thank you sir, may I have another?” when someone jabs them in the face with a fake hand on a stick while they are trying to eat is a matter of dispute. Volunteers say way too many. The assistant director says zero. Then there are the numbers:

Last year, [Franklin Co] recorded an 82 percent success rate of adopting, rescuing, or reclaiming dogs.
[…]
In March alone, 139 [dogs] were euthanized. Debbie Finelli, Assistant Director Franklin County Dog Shelter says that’s because 52 out of the 140 dogs that came in were terminally ill or terminally injured. “I couldn’t do anything for those,” she explains.

If I’m reading this correctly, 140 dogs came in and 139 were killed in March. Of the 139, 87 were apparently either healthy or possibly had some treatable minor illness/injury. So she “couldn’t do anything” for 52 of the dogs and didn’t do anything, except killing, for the other 87. BUTOFCOURSE:

“I don’t like to euthanize. (I) wish I never had to, but we’re an open shelter (and) have to take every dog that comes in here.”

*drink*

Several shelter vols who spoke with the local news on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution (stellar indicator of a progressive shelter) say that many dogs are needlessly killed after failing to bow to the Fake Hand of God. Which has mercifully declined in use over the years:

The ASPCA tells 10TV “We have determined that food guarding assessments are not useful tools for shelter dogs because they are not reliable predictors of overall behavior in the home.”

The Franklin County dog shelter uses the ASPCA guidelines to run its shelter, but says it has no plans to remove the assessment.

“Maybe when a new director comes in they’ll have the ability to take that out of the behavioral assessment, but at this point, I don’t have the authority to take it out of the assessment, Finelli explains.

Really? Is that the hill you want to die on? I wonder what is supposedly necessary for Franklin Co to bring itself into compliance with the guidelines it claims to follow – Act of Congress? Presidential executive order? Directive from a burning bush?

Soooooo we follow the ASPCA guidelines, except for the one that would prevent us from needlessly killing good dogs, which is mostly who we kill, but we don’t like to kill but we kill as many as we take in but we have an 82% save rate. I guess.

Franklin Co needs to stop putting healthy, friendly dogs in the dumpster and put its pokey-in-the-face-stick there instead.

At its most recent state inspection in December 2015, the very suckish Person Co pound in NC reportedly had just 32 animals in its 71 cage facility. Previous inspections reveal similar numbers. That would seem to be a problem in a pound that kills animals. But the statistics posted on the Person Co website indicate that in the first quarter of 2016, they have killed just 6% of dogs and 2% of cats:

So I’m noticing the pound has a fairly impressive laundry list of Reasons Dogs and Cats Must Die. If you’re lost and we know who your owner is but your owner doesn’t come by to get you, you must die. If you are unpredictable, we can not have your loony ass running around town dropping random zaniness on unsuspecting folks trying to do their shopping and such so, you must die. If we are out of space, which we are never even close to but some numbers need to be put into this category because otherwise it gets lonely, you must die. And if your adoption time has expired, you must die – because obviously dogs and cats are freshest on the first day and you really don’t want them going moldy out there on the adoption floor.

Anyhoo, I see they’ve taken in 223 cats so far this year and they’ve killed 9 of them for REASON plus 107 more for REASON plus another 44 for REASON plus – heeeeey, hold up one pancake flipping second. Oh my Math. They are lying about their kill rates. And not just for cats. And not just for 2016.

Alice at the Medina Co SPCA, who has an opinion on your stats. (Photo by Casey Post.)

Person Co’s kill rate for cats for the first quarter of 2016 is actually about 77%. But you know, 77% is right next to 2% on the keyboard so. They’ve killed roughly 30% of their dogs so far this year. Which is like 6% if you times it by 5. And those kill rates for previous years showing a steady improvement? Also all lies.

To summarize, the place is mostly empty but they kill for space but it’s only 2% unless you are some kind of math snob and want to go by actual hoity-toity numbers and anyway it’s another year of steady improvement which, while wholly unsupported by the true statistics, is a nice sounding thing and everybody likes nice sounding things so why you gotta hate? I think I need a refresher assplanation about how, if only I would neuter and microchip my pets, all these lies covering up convenience killing would not be needed.

Arapahoe County has partnered with the City of Aurora to provide sheltering and related services, such as veterinary care for sheltered animals, for lost, stray and impounded dogs through the Aurora Animal Shelter. County Animal Control Officers will have 24-hour access to the facility to ensure animals get shelter and care as soon as possible.

Care as soon as possible. Gee, that sounds swell. Except that Aurora has a ban on pitbull type dogs and therefore refuses to adopt them out to the public.

This new partnership also provides opportunities to improve efficiencies in daily operations for the County’s animal control program.

And by efficiencies, I assume they mean faster pitbull extermination.

I reached out to Arapahoe Co regarding this issue and asked about the pitbulls impounded by the county, where there is no BSL, being taken to Aurora, which does have BSL. I received a response from AC supervisor Caitlyn Cahill. It reads, in part:

Due to the breed restriction laws for the City of Aurora, the shelter is not able to adopt out Pit Bulls; however, once a dog has passed the County required stray hold period and is able to be adopted, it will be transferred to another facility. The Aurora shelter works with many other agencies to ensure that dogs are able to be transferred.

She went on to list a number of private shelters where pitbulls “will be transferred”. My BS indicator light started blinking fast enough to host a dance party so I asked:

To be clear, all pitbull type dogs are guaranteed a space at one of these other shelters after the hold period expires?

Ms. Cahill responded, in part:

I cannot speak for the shelter regarding their statistics but know that they put a large amount of time and effort into working with partners to transfer out adoptable animals that they are unable to care for or adopt out to the public due to their limitations.

Oh. I see. Pitbull killing is a “limitation”. And if you like that doublespeak, or even if you don’t, prepare for more since the Aurora pound is a member of the Metro Denver Animal Welfare Alliance. The MDAWA is all about controlling language from its members, including rescuers and fosters, in order to deceive the public about what goes on in the kill rooms of its pounds. Rescuers for example, are not allowed to say they “rescue animals from shelters” or use the terms “no kill” or “high kill”. I wonder what happens to someone who slips up and exercises his First Amendment rights as a U.S. citizen. I hope it’s not enhanced interrogation techniques.

So Arapahoe Co managed to effectively institute BSL without a vote to get approval from the people. And then came up with this great Pitbulls Will Be Transferred to Private Rescue Groups bit of fiction in order to give the appearance that pitbull killing is not the fault of people doing the killing (they put in time and effort), it’s the rescue groups who don’t step up that are to blame. Rescues which already have pitbulls in every kennel, bathroom, broom closet and dresser drawer they can manage. But if they don’t take every pitbull from Arapahoe Co, the Aurora pound will have to kill them. I mean limitation. Er – efficiencies.

There are levels of appalling. This story is all top tier appalling. It’s the appallingest.

On Monday, January 18, Teresa Panameno let her cat outside. Little Boy never came home. He was trapped by a neighbor and Wake Co ACOs picked him up the next day. Like many pets who get trapped by cat hating neighbors and taken to places that kill roughly half the cats they are supposed to be sheltering, Little Boy was not in a ball of yarn playing mood. Instead of recognizing his behavior as normal under the circumstances, the Wake Co pound rushed to deem him unowned and unadoptable:

Dr. Jennifer Federico, Director of Wake County Animal Services told ABC11 that the cat was immediately deemed feral for his aggressive nature, and given the state-mandated stray hold of 72 hours.

Meanwhile Ms. Panameno continued searching for Little Boy, including looking at the animals listed on the Wake Co pound’s website. She finally saw his picture posted on the site on Thursday, January 21 and began calling the shelter. No one was answering the phone so she sent an email. But no one was answering emails either. The office staff had gone home in preparation for a storm that was moving through the area. The front office stayed closed on Friday due to inclement weather but Wake Co kept the kill room up and running for business as usual. Little Boy was killed on Friday, while his owner was trying to get him back.

Someone from the pound finally answered Ms. Panameno’s email on Sunday, advising that her pet could not be handled at the time he was impounded, failing to mention that he had been killed while the place was closed to the public. So the next day, Ms. Panameno drove to the pound, cat carrier in hand, to bring Little Boy home. Gee, I bet that was a swell conversation to have.

Noooo. When you wait by the mailbox for weeks for your Little Orphan Annie secret decoder ring and then it finally arrives and you figure out the special message Little Orphan Annie had for you was a crummy commercial, that’s just sad all around. When you accept an owned pet from a cat hating neighbor, immediately label him unowned, then close for business due to weather but keep your kill room open, then fail to admit to the owner what you’ve done so that she walks into your facility full of hope, expecting to take her beloved family member home, that’s unconditionally appalling. Your precious procedure sucks. If you can’t own it, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it.

Screengrab from the WJHL website showing puppies at the Scott Co pound.

Volunteers at Scott Co Animal Control in Gate City, Virginia are speaking out against the needless killing of dogs at the facility and the staff’s failure to work with rescues. But surprise! – only joking, there isn’t any surprise:

News channel 11 spoke with the Scott County Animal Control today and they say they’re not doing anything wrong.
[…]
Jake Dougherty works at Scott County Animal Control and he said they are following procedure. He said, “the required amount of time that we have to keep [animals] is 7 days if they don’t have a collar. If they have a collar, we have to keep them 10 days.”

In addition to following procedure, Scott Co AC is functioning primarily as a pet killing facility where 65% of the animals are killed. Volunteers say that sometimes adopters inquire about a pet only to be told the dog was already killed. So why can’t slack-ass adopters get on the ball sooner and get down to the pet killing facility to adopt while the dogs are still alive? Maybe it’s the hours, which the county’s website (which shows zero dogs for adoption) states are 8 – 12 Monday through Saturday.

Dougherty says additional staff would help. He said, “If we had a full-time employee … that would, I’m sure, double our chances of people coming in to see what we’ve got.”

Star light, star bright,
The first star I see tonight;
I wish I may, I wish I might,
Have the wish I wish tonight.

Gosh, if only Dougherty’s wish could come true, the dogs would have double the chance!

Scott County Animal Control actually already has 2 full-time employees, including Dougherty, along with one part-time employee.

Oh. So the dogs already have what – quintuple the chance of staying alive but are still being killed at a rate of 65%? But IF there is room and IF someone wants them, Dougherty says dogs might be allowed to live beyond the 7 days – up to a month even. Gee whiz! *kisses ring* Except when they aren’t:

Volunteers, like Billy Denton, said that just last month animals at Scott County Animal Control Shelter were killed too soon.
Denton said they’ve got “21 kennels there and there were twelve dogs at the shelter and 6 dogs were euthanized.”

Oh. Well anyway ho, hum:

Dougherty says euthanizing animals is part of the job. He said, “You have to distance yourself a little bit from the animals.”
“I can’t look at them the way that everyone else does because you’re not going to find homes for every animal,” He said.

So the dogs are killed by someone who doesn’t look at them like other human beings do because he considers killing them to be his job. That puts a swell image in mind for every poor dog who draws his last breath at the Scott Co pound.

One thing you can’t fault him on though is his logic. It’s absolutely correct that you are not going to find homes for every animal when you’re only open for 4 hours a day, sit around pining for a full time employee when you are one of the full time employees, don’t work with rescues, don’t market your dogs and don’t regard dogs like everyone else does. And you definitely aren’t going to find homes for dead dogs, which is what you make most of your live dogs into, because you think it’s your job.

Tiffany Smith regularly picks up pets she finds roaming loose in her area. The dog she found wandering her neighborhood on October 30 was different – her family fell in love with the dog and named her Loretta:

“She just hopped in my car,” said Smith[.] “She was so loving.”
[…]
“She was a sweetie,” Smith said. “She got along with our kids. She got along with our dog.”

Ms. Smith turned Loretta over to police for transport to Victoria City-County Animal Control. She then called the shelter and asked an employee to note that her family wanted to adopt Loretta if no one claimed her. The employee told her to call back on November 2. When she did, she was told Loretta has already been killed. Oops:

“There was a miscommunication,” [chief officer for AC Brecka] Tieken said. “That definitely has given us an opportunity to establish … a policy/protocol.”

Ya think?

Tieken said because the protocol is still being developed, she could not release details of the changes.

It’s so innovative, even the developers don’t know what it is. I’m guessing it’s some cutting edge policy where employees WRITE SHIT DOWN and READ IT. I hope they can pull this off and blaze a trail for other shelters. Imagine the possibilities.

Making earmarks for animals that have been chosen by adopters is harder than it seems, Tieken said.

No doubt. Scrawling DO NOT KILL on a cage card involves penmanship skills, a background in 2nd grade spelling and the ability to procure a writing instrument. It’s little wonder so many shelter workers burn out.

“You gotta realize, when there are so many animals coming in to Animal Control on a daily basis, it’s next to impossible” for one of the shelter workers to call someone when a specific animal is available, Tieken said.

Two points: There are 8 dogs listed for adoption on the Victoria Co website today. Just having a guess, there are likely no more than 1 or 2 of them who have adopters waiting on them. So let’s not make this out to be Wal Mart on Black Friday.

Also: No one said the shelter worker had to call Ms. Smith when Loretta was ready to be adopted (heaven forfend). It was the other way around. The worker told Ms. Smith it was her job to call back in 3 days and ask about the dog. Which she did. Only to be told the friendly dog was in the dumpster.

If you can’t take at least a passing interest in not killing the pets people have told you they want to take home, I’m not sure the bar can be lowered further. You are standing on it.

Screenshot of the last 4 dogs listed on the MAS PetHarbor website, taken October 29, 2015.

Screenshot of the last 4 cats listed on the MAS PetHarbor website, taken October 29, 2015.

Animal advocates are concerned that once again, Memphis Animal Services is not updating the only online listings the city does for animals at the facility: PetHarbor. These listings, while far from ideal, are essential since MAS has limited hours, limited services, and lots of locked doors where animals are hidden from view. In some cases, the online listing is the only way for anyone to know an animal is being kept at the facility. As usual, MAS director James Rogers blames technical difficulties and wants everyone to please stand by:

PetHarbor shows the last dogs that came into the shelter were on October 19. No dogs have been brought in since that date or has no one updated? Considering review dates are critical, some have a small chance of getting out of there if their info is not available.

Adjust accordingly. So MAS has been no kill for 10 days or… erm, something else? The animals must really be piling up. MAS might finally have to use all those brand new cages that have been collecting dust since the place opened. Or not – video of the Puppy(less) Room at MAS taken this week by Jody Fisher:

So where are all the animals who have been impounded by MAS over the last 10 days? Where are all the animals whose review dates have been adjusted in order to compensate for the city’s failure to list them online so they can be reclaimed, rescued or adopted? Why does MAS have so many technical difficulties using PetHarbor? Is PetHarbor designed for rocket scientist use only? I reached out to Chameleon for comment last time MAS was blaming the company for the failure to post photos of animals (not very long ago) but no one responded. Hopefully they are more responsive to their customers who have com-pew-tor problems. Ten days is an awfully long time to leave animals’ lives hanging in the balance – if in fact any are actually still alive.

On Tuesday, the police in Huntersville, NC, accompanied by Char-Meck AC and representatives from the ASPCA, raided a property allegedly used for dogfighting and seized 16 adult pitbulls and 7 puppies. The dogs have been taken to a secret location. No one has been charged at this point but the investigation is ongoing.

“They’re alive, but they are in various states of medical conditions,” she said. “They’re not pets by any means, not like your dog, but they’re currently going through their medical evaluations.”

They’re not pets by any means. They’re not like your dog. Gee, that’s so weird because they remind me very much of my dog:

This lovely dog in Huntersville, NC is pictured on the ASPCA website with a fat head and a sweet expression.

My dog has a fat head and a sweet expression too.

This sweet dog in Huntersville, NC is pictured in a video on the ASPCA website getting a scratch and a hug from a person.

My dog likes to get a scratch and a hug too.

This pup in Huntersville, NC is pictured in a video on the ASPCA website giving kisses to her buddy.

My dog likes to give kisses to her buddy too.

So weird, right? But I guess they’re not like my dog somehow, even though they totally seem like my dog. Because ASPCA.

Rescued. Smeared. Taken to a secret location. And, I presume, already being used for fundraising purposes by the ASPCA.

What say you, unwashed masses? Do the dogs in Huntersville remind you of your dog? Could a dog who hasn’t been treated as a pet in past start being treated like one and possibly like it? Will anyone stand up for these dogs and demand their rights to live, to love and to be loved be protected? If only there was some kind of society for the prevention of cruelty to animals that could do that.